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AP/Press Association Images

This is Hitler's old house ... and the Austrian government wants it

The Nazi leader spent his early childhood in the building.

THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT is looking at options that would allow it to take possession of the house where Adolf Hitler spent his early childhood.

The move is the latest in efforts by the government to ensure that the house is not turned to a use that makes it even more of a shrine for Hitler’s admirers. Municipal officials in Braunau, where the house stands, already complain that it draws neo-Nazi visitors to the town on the border with Germany.

Reacting to reports in local media, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said his ministry expects expert opinions by the end of the month on expropriation — taking the property for public use — if the owner turns down a government offer to buy it. Authorities refuse to identify the owner.

The Interior Ministry has rented the house for years to prevent its misuse, subletting it to various charitable organizations. The building has stood empty since a workshop for the mentally disabled moved out more than three years ago.

Austria Hitler's House A memorial reading 'For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions have died' outside the house. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

Local officials say the owner vetoed plans to move in a new charity and a school late last year because she was opposed to renovations that would be required.

“We’ve tried very hard to find a solution,” local councillor Harry Buchmayer told the  Kurier newspaper, adding: “She does not seem ready to cooperate.”

Grundboeck described expropriation as the “last option,” saying the government hoped the owner would agree to sell. She reportedly has turned down past offers.

Among prospective buyers over the past few years was a Russian parliamentarian who threatened to raze it — a plan doomed to fail as the Renaissance-era building is under historical protection.

Column: Did you know Hitler had an Irish sister-in-law?

Read: Ming is on a ‘bad list’ with a Nazi supporter … and he’s not impressed

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38 Comments
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    Mute Pauliebhoy
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:57 PM

    I’m sure there’s a perfectly square bit of black dirt on one of those windows

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    Mute Robespierre
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    Jan 17th 2015, 9:15 AM

    Austria is a beautiful but very strange place. Germany got all the rap – they pretty much got away with… Genocide.

    You have to go out of your way to find WW2 memorials to their part in the Shoah unlike Germany or occupied Poland where reminders are everywhere.

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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Jan 17th 2015, 11:15 AM

    Once heard that the majority of concentration camp commanders where austrian. They protray themselves as victims of nazi germany when in actuality they where willing partners

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    Mute Dylan Neary
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:45 PM

    Put a Jewish supermarket in it, that ll have him turning in his grave

    179
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    Mute Paul Somers
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    Jan 16th 2015, 9:38 PM

    It looks like Mozarts house in Vienna, seriously. Personally put a religious education center in, open to all, catholic, protestant, Jewish, Muslim and so forth. In Salzberg Castle 14th century, they mass executed tens of thousands of Jews from the castle walls. They have a memorial shrine in the great hall explaining all the details. The acorn never falls far from the tree.

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    Mute Jurgen Remak
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:45 PM

    Enough museums perhaps to the victims of Hitler, but if the state can get their hands on it, something like a new facility for mentally disabled people would be appropriate. A section of the Third Reich ‘s victims often forgotten about, liquidated without too much opposition from German medical or other groups.

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    Mute Juninho
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:41 PM

    Braunau is actually quite a nice little town.

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    Mute John Cooke
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:54 PM

    Hitler followed Yeovil Town up until he died. He actually had their crest tatooed on his shoulder

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    Mute Jamie McCormack
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:59 PM

    Anyone else notice the windows and door? 666

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    Mute Dan
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    Jan 16th 2015, 10:24 PM

    Quick, tell Frank

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:43 PM

    Sinners are probably on the way to their shrine as we write.

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    Mute stephen cassidy
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:48 PM

    I think the sinners are left wing ..I’d try the blue shirts .know your history pal

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    Mute Glen
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:49 PM

    You know Patrick
    The term “broken record” is well associated with you and I don’t even vote SF.

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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:55 PM

    Stephen, first time I’ve heard Sean Russell described as a blue shirt :) know your history indeed lol

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    Mute Jurgen Remak
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:15 PM

    Is it true that Sean Russell was buried at sea by the U-boat crew, wrapped in a swastika flag?

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    Mute Glen
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:42 PM

    Is it true that Hitler escaped to Argentina and died in 1962.
    With that in mind it has never actually been proved that he took his life and his body was burned. The world just accepted that from the nazis who were found in the bunker.

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    Mute Bulie Julie
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:45 PM

    I think the found dental records…

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    Mute Bulie Julie
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:46 PM

    *they

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    Mute Praise Hope
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:49 PM

    The Russians opened their records and evidence of his death a few years ago.

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    Mute Glen
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:50 PM

    Yes I’m aware of the Dental records but it’s one of those that just won’t go away.
    It’s also been proved that the charred remains were a woman so who knows.
    The point I’m making is this whole suicide/set on fire scenario came from his own SS, was swallowed by the Russians and then everyone else.

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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:51 PM

    Unternehmen Taube (operation dove)was aborted as a result. Not sure re flag but he was buried at sea.

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Jan 16th 2015, 8:10 PM

    I used to be amazed at the lack of knowledge that the average Shinner had about the party’s association with Hitler and his Nazis. I also used to think that they were capable of independent thought. I now accept that my initial impressions were incorrect. They elect the same leader year after year – 32 years I think – they call it democracy.Robert Mugabe has been President of Zimbabwe since 1987; Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from 1979 – 2006; I need not go on.

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    Mute Glen
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    Jan 16th 2015, 8:20 PM

    ” I need not go on”
    Well thank god for that !!

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Jan 16th 2015, 8:46 PM

    It is true Jurgen but shhhh. The SH/IRA sympathisers don’t like that repeated.

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    Mute Simon Jester
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    Jan 16th 2015, 11:03 PM

    Actually Glen there were three sets of remains of remains.Once the Russian and Allied forces had finished stamping them to bits.The female remains are either Eva Braun or Magda Gobbells,and her hubby Joeseph Gobbells were all cremated outside the bunker. It was verified by Hitlers bodygaurd and other officers under interrogation in Soviet captivity.Helps too when you find Adolfs dental records and a lower jaw bone that matches.

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    Mute Pat Kavanagh
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    Jan 16th 2015, 9:45 PM

    Why do anything with it? It’s a historical building with huge importance. I mean, Julius Ceasar was a bit of a a**hole who massacred all across the known world at that time, literally wiping out whole tribes of people, but if we had Julius Caeser’s home nowadays it’d be a great historical monument. Same for Napoleon or any other historical leader. There’s no point in changing it into a a home for gay, black, Jewish, down-syndrome gypsies just to “piss him off” or whatever…that’s just stupid.

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    Mute Gary Gary
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:38 PM

    I wonder if in one hundred years will opinions on hitter change?

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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:43 PM

    Nope.

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    Mute Charles Rex
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:52 PM

    What could change the opinion of what this man was, and did? Reading between the lines and remembering several of your recent comments, I’ve a fair idea where you’re going with your musings. Not cool.

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    Mute jack frost
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:01 PM

    Big gaff. .must of had a few quid

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    Mute Frank
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    Jan 16th 2015, 7:34 PM

    Barack Obama should buy it and open it as an American Embassy.

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    Mute Anthony Connors
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:37 PM

    Give it to them for free there keeping the Irish going in work

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    Mute Anthony Connors
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    Jan 16th 2015, 6:59 PM

    Give to them free ya

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